From seeing the different opinions reflected here, I'm no longer sure what to think. I am a student at a major American public university, going for a BS in Comp Sci (and possibly a Math minor, for algorithms and to augment my moderate math skills). What's the bottom line for my employment opportunities when I get out? I mean, Comp Sci for the beauty of code is one thing, but I need to be able to support myself and a family.
Every time I turn around and read the front page of Slashdot, I see another article about how corporations and the government are screwing us out of more of our basic rights. Free dissemination of upcoming legislature? How can they take that away under the guise of copyright? Then I read about the Gracenote fiasco and how they are suing Roxio over switching to a competitor's database. Maybe I'm just angry and misinformed, but isn't the whole concept of the free market based on supplying the best product at the lowest price? It used to be that if you lost a customer because of your service, you improved your service, you didn't sue them for switching.
It's cute and funny to make fun of people outside of the US for making comments about the legislature we let slip through the cracks, but it is very easy to see their perspective. I'm a college student, a Comp Sci major, and I have to worry about whether I will be liable for the code I create, even if it can be potentially used for malicious purposes. That's assuming the contract I signed with my company makes it my code at all.
When will this insanity end? At some point, we're not going to be able to wake up from this bad dream; we might even be at this point now. If so, will someone please tell me what I can do about it? I see my future being buried in a morass of commercialism far worse than what we have now. How long is it until the government is the corporations in everything, including name? I'm honestly very scared for the direction I see this country taking. What can we, as concerned American citizens, do to shore up the last few freedoms that haven't been ripped from us?
Flame me for being a newbie, whatever. I don't care. I'm just so pissed off at seeing well-intentioned people bending over for corporations who play us like pawns. We, as a citizenry, need a line in the sand to defend. I pose this question to/., some of the most technically informed people on the Internet: When do we start fighting back?
Using Prisoner's handy dandy Internet guide, you too can be free of the pesky bludgeon of Big Business (tm) (c)! Just follow these easy, painless steps, and you will soon be an Internet Liberator:
1) Join an IRC server and make many friends in the Silicon Valley.
2) Learn inside information from said friends about the companies they crac... umm, are subcontracted by.
3) Use said information to make a killing as an eTrade/Datek/[insert online brokerage here] Day Trader (tm).
4) Take that fortune and set up the infrastructure of your very own ISP, backbone and all!
5) Buy all the Linux servers you can afford.
6) Donate money to the EFF.
7) Make sure you publicize all of the above on/.
8) Sit back and earn the praise and respect of the online community, not only for your benevolence, but for sticking it to Big Business (tm) (c)!
Be the first on your block to save the Internet! ACT NOW and get a free Linux drink coaster at NO EXTRA CHARGE!!
It seems to me that Gates hasn't had a very active role in the company for a while now, what with all the practice runs for his taped antitrust deposition he had to do...
Seriously, I really don't think much will change. Maybe they'll get a little less predatory, since the man who built Microsoft from the ground up is no longer in the pilot's seat (and hot seat, for that matter), but you can never tell. Gates will undoubtedly be a force to be reckoned with, so things probably won't stray from the Microsoft party line.
Slashdot Mirror
From seeing the different opinions reflected here, I'm no longer sure what to think. I am a student at a major American public university, going for a BS in Comp Sci (and possibly a Math minor, for algorithms and to augment my moderate math skills). What's the bottom line for my employment opportunities when I get out? I mean, Comp Sci for the beauty of code is one thing, but I need to be able to support myself and a family.
Every time I turn around and read the front page of Slashdot, I see another article about how corporations and the government are screwing us out of more of our basic rights. Free dissemination of upcoming legislature? How can they take that away under the guise of copyright? Then I read about the Gracenote fiasco and how they are suing Roxio over switching to a competitor's database. Maybe I'm just angry and misinformed, but isn't the whole concept of the free market based on supplying the best product at the lowest price? It used to be that if you lost a customer because of your service, you improved your service, you didn't sue them for switching.
/., some of the most technically informed people on the Internet: When do we start fighting back?
It's cute and funny to make fun of people outside of the US for making comments about the legislature we let slip through the cracks, but it is very easy to see their perspective. I'm a college student, a Comp Sci major, and I have to worry about whether I will be liable for the code I create, even if it can be potentially used for malicious purposes. That's assuming the contract I signed with my company makes it my code at all.
When will this insanity end? At some point, we're not going to be able to wake up from this bad dream; we might even be at this point now. If so, will someone please tell me what I can do about it? I see my future being buried in a morass of commercialism far worse than what we have now. How long is it until the government is the corporations in everything, including name? I'm honestly very scared for the direction I see this country taking. What can we, as concerned American citizens, do to shore up the last few freedoms that haven't been ripped from us?
Flame me for being a newbie, whatever. I don't care. I'm just so pissed off at seeing well-intentioned people bending over for corporations who play us like pawns. We, as a citizenry, need a line in the sand to defend. I pose this question to
PrisonerCX
Using Prisoner's handy dandy Internet guide, you too can be free of the pesky bludgeon of Big Business (tm) (c)! Just follow these easy, painless steps, and you will soon be an Internet Liberator:
/.
1) Join an IRC server and make many friends in the Silicon Valley.
2) Learn inside information from said friends about the companies they crac... umm, are subcontracted by.
3) Use said information to make a killing as an eTrade/Datek/[insert online brokerage here] Day Trader (tm).
4) Take that fortune and set up the infrastructure of your very own ISP, backbone and all!
5) Buy all the Linux servers you can afford.
6) Donate money to the EFF.
7) Make sure you publicize all of the above on
8) Sit back and earn the praise and respect of the online community, not only for your benevolence, but for sticking it to Big Business (tm) (c)!
Be the first on your block to save the Internet! ACT NOW and get a free Linux drink coaster at NO EXTRA CHARGE!!
It seems to me that Gates hasn't had a very active role in the company for a while now, what with all the practice runs for his taped antitrust deposition he had to do...
Seriously, I really don't think much will change. Maybe they'll get a little less predatory, since the man who built Microsoft from the ground up is no longer in the pilot's seat (and hot seat, for that matter), but you can never tell. Gates will undoubtedly be a force to be reckoned with, so things probably won't stray from the Microsoft party line.
Wait, is it my imagination, but in that video feed from M$, did Bill Gates just take credit for the GUI?